I'm cross posting this from my house rules thread because it's specifically relevant to here. I'm happy to field questions, criticism/debate and suggestions for additions here as well. I will update both threads as necessary (so they will both be the same all the time).

Alternative team handicapping rulesThis rule is meant to fully replace the official rules for bonuses to teams with lower team ratings.

Base handicap: multiple the difference in team rating by 5. The lower rated team gains the result in Koban to spend in the ninja shop. For example, a team rated 12 versus a team rated at 16 would result in 20 koban for the team rated 12.

This koban is temporary, and will be lost after the beginning of the game, if not spent in the shop. Either team may spend their own, saved, koban in this shop before the game as well.

All purchases are only usable in the current game (unless otherwise stated) and are lost, even if unused, at the end of the game.

Choices:1KB:- Poisoned Shuriken Token: You may discard this token when any ninja makes a shuriken attack. Regardless of the outcome of the attack if the attackers die comes up water, the defender is poisoned. If it comes up air the defender is slowed. If it comes up spirit, the defender is cursed.

2KB:- Reroll Token: As per reroll tokens in the manual- Fire Scroll: When one of your ninja is attacked you may use a fire scroll to skip normal combat and immediately resolve the attack as though the fire element were chosen. If the attacker has Precision Strike, it is ignored when resolving this attack.

3KB:- Smoke Bomb Token: At the beginning, or end, of any ninja's movement you may discard a smoke bomb token to create obscuring terrain in that ninja's influence zone. This terrain remains until the end of the round.- Expired Tea: When you send an opposing ninja to the healing house, you may use this to add a delay token to that ninja.- Healing Incense: During your upkeep you may use this item to move 1 additional ninja from the healing house to the training grounds.

4KB:- One Koban: You may add one koban to your team's total. This remains even after the game has ended. (max 6)- Moon Charm: You may discard a Moon Charm when playing a moon card to use the second effect even if it is not currently the proper moon phase.

5KB:- Invisibility potion: You may use the potion to place 1 more ninja on the field than the maximum allowed. This may be done during setup or during the deployment of models during upkeep of any round. In either case, the last ninja placed will automatically be in stealth, regardless of scenario rules.

6KB:- Acupuncture Treatment: Choose one ninja on your team and roll two dice. That ninja may choose any one keyword from the general list or any element the rolled dice match. If doubles are rolled the ninja may choose a keyword from the general list, the rolled element or may take the level up bonus associated with the doubles. For example +1 attack for double fire element or +1 defense for double water.

8KB:- Moon Power Token: As per the moon power token bonus in the manual.- Commemorative Forehead Protector: You may choose one additional All-Star at the end of the game. It must be different from any other chosen All-Star this game. The bonus XP is not lost at the end of the game.

Temporary Ronin:Any ronin (still respecting league specific rules, such as unique ronin) may be hired with bonus koban. To do so, half the base cost of the ronin (rounding down) and add it's upkeep cost to that to get it's single game cost. For example Howl & Yip would cost 16KB. They have a base cost of 23. Halved and rounded down becomes 11, plus their upkeep cost of 5 is 16.